Gaming Guru

Multi-Hand Video Poker: Jackpot or Jack-in-the-Box?

Video poker was a genuine breakthrough in slot machines. Previous advances
were in the bowels of the banditos, mechanical then electronic innovations
that raised reliability and versatility. But they offered little apparent
change other than wider ranges of probabilities and consequent larger but
less likely jackpots.

Poker-oriented games took advantage of the video displays to go beyond
the familiar reel idiom. And although video poker is immensely popular,
there's a fundamental problem. Solid citizens seek situations where
modest wagers can yield robust returns. And big bucks weren't in the
cards, so to speak, at video poker.

Conventional slots can be readily set so they pay millions of dollars to
lucky winners. All that's needed to raise a payout on these machines is
to lower the prospect of hitting it.

Video poker is different. The chance of a royal in a game with no wild
cards, or of a top-ranked result like five-of-a-kind with a joker, can't
be specified arbitrarily. For expert play, the odds are around
40,000-to-1 ?? the value determined by the composition of the deck and
the time-honored ranking of poker hands, not by whim. This, and the need
for acceptable payouts on other recognized "good" hands, limits jackpots
to about 800-for-1, 4,000 coins out for five in. That's a mere $1,000
for $1.25 bet. Even progressive video poker hookups rarely exceed
1,000-for-1.

Over the years, the machine moguls tried to boost video poker jackpots.
They tested methods like trimming returns for lesser hands or paying
bonuses for "special" royals ?? such as one designated suit or 10-to-ace
in ascending order. None of these approaches ever caught much fire.

Then, inspiration. The video poker pooh-bahs borrowed an idea from the
multi-line nickel slot barons. They produced versions of video poker
with proliferations of simultaneous hands ?? three, then five, now 50,
and you can only guess how many will be next. In essence, all the hands
on which a player elects to bet start with the same initial five cards.
The player decides which to hold, and the choice applies to all hands in
action. But each hand is completed independently, as if from its own
deck.

Think about playing 50 hands at once, especially when they're all tiny
enough to be squeezed onto a single screen. It's impossible for anyone
to keep visual track of what's going on, and where. But the same
phenomenon occurs on multi-line reel-type slots. Ordinary human beings
can't tell by looking at the screen which horizontal, diagonal, or
zig-zag lines have won or how much. But, it turns out, nobody really
cares. The computer driving the game highlights the winners, mostly for
purposes of pizazz, while also displaying the amount returned and the
total accumulated credits.

This seems to be enough. And the principle works as well on video poker
as at multi-line slots. Players don't necessarily want to bother seeing
anything as droll as winners and losers. Just the net return, if that,
before rushing on to a new round.

The possibility of hitting a big jackpot is the key allure of concurrent
games. Not just by summing the wins on individual hands. But by means of
bonuses for low-likelihood results such as multiple coincident royals.

A second attraction is that a round with enough hands in action almost
always gives a return. It may be a net deficit ?? 13 hands losing and
two recovering 1-for-1 on high pairs was a 13-coin loss in second grade
arithmetic (and still is). Yet, the display shows two units "won" and
added to the credit meter. Explaining how you can score on every round
but go broke in the aggregate.

Variations on the same theme are rife outside the casino, in what passes
for real life. There, too, it has a lot to do with the age-old triumph
of emotion over reason. Or, as the celebrated sage of cynicism, Sumner A
Ingmark, sardonically snickered:

Pathetic, or just plain amusing?Believing that you've won, while
losing.

Casino City is an independent directory and information service free of any gaming operator's control.
Warning: You must ensure you meet all age and other regulatory requirements before entering a
Casino or placing a wager. There are hundreds of jurisdictions in the world with Internet access and
hundreds of different games and gambling opportunities available on the Internet.
YOU are responsible for determining if it is legal for YOU to play any particular games or place any
particular wager.